I don't think Welker effects NE that much, Welker was pretty much being phased out and they haven't won a championship since they got him.

Hard not to love Welker if you're a NE fan, but sometimes, you have to change the dynamic of your locker room. I'm not blaming Welker for the Pats' shortcomings in recent playoff seasons, but I think change is not necessarily a bad thing.

In fairness, he wasn't really being "phased out"...he had 118 catches last year, and 72 first downs, and that was after the Pats weren't going to him much early on. On the flip side, weeks 3-6 were monster weeks stats-wise, but his numbers from Week 7 on weren't huge. He was always the go-to guy though, the guy Brady could count on even if he had a quiet first half. I'm not going to say the Pats will move on seamlessly, but I do think it's not going to be Armageddon in NE by any stretch. Brady managed to get his team into an AFC Championship game with Reche Friggin' Caldwell as his #1 receiver (a key Caldwell drop forced the Pats to punt near the end of the game...the completely gassed Patriot D had nothing left...Manning did the rest). I think Brady will find a way to make do with whatever he's got.

Amendola seems risky, in that he's only played 12 games in the last two seasons. But I want to see what else the Pats do before judging this offseason.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Colorado Rockies 1976

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I swear half the reason that the Pats signed Amendola is because Belichek already has him listed as questionable since he loves to stack his injury report......Personally I think Welker's an idiot for leaving the perfect situation for him, but this might be good for the Pats as they have to look to someone else on 3rd downs which might open up that offense just a bit......

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Amendola makes sense for NE...I guess they just didn't trust Edelman. But Amendola is a poor mans Welker when healthy (which is rare) doesn't have the explosiveness. They'll plug him in their and keep on going.

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First Dumervil for 5 years, now Michael Huff on 3/$6MM. Not a complete disaster offseason for the Ravens all things considered, even if they still need to replace Boldin somehow.

Agreed. I was reading we signed three players on D for the same price Cleveland is paying Kruger next year. Good for us.

We still need a lot of help at Linebacker. My greatest fear is that our Defense ranks in the top 10 and our offense moves several steps backward. Flacco become "average Joe" without Boldin. Re-watching the playoffs on NFL network makes me cringe after every great play that Boldin makes to keep the chains moving.

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Tebow to the Patriots lol. Watch them actually use him the way he should have been used this year.

Perhaps Woody, Rex and Idzik should take notes and see how a competently run organization handles it.

And I'm happy for Tebow. While he ought to be mature enough to grasp the reasons for attention he gets, he really did everything the Jets and Broncos asked of him and never complained. It's certainly a lot better than his Jets teammates that are willing to bash others to reporters anonomously.